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Recent Editorials |
Records Come Out on Clinton's 'Enforcer'by Josh Gerstein
The logjam holding back records from President Clinton's library finally seems to have broken with the release of more than 2000 pages of records about a top aide to Mr. Clinton, Evelyn Lieberman. Ms. Lieberman is best known for her efforts, as deputy White House chief of staff, to oust an intern-turned-correspondence-aide who dressed provocatively and took a flirty interest in Mr. Clinton, Monica Lewinsky. For that and other actions, Ms. Lieberman came to be known as "the enforcer" in the West Wing. Ms. Lewisnky referred to her as one of "the meanies."Sadly, or perhaps happily, the files just released seem to have nothing to do with that period. The approximately 2600 pages detail Ms. Lieberman's subsequent work as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. The National Archives' "finding aid" on the records is here. This release brings to about 13,000 the number of pages released by the Clinton Library on the subject of public diplomacy efforts during the late 1990s, a subject which is probably not at the top of the agenda of most reporters, or even most academics. Mr. Clinton has stressed that the decisions about the order in which requests are processed are not made by him or his aides, but by career officials at the National Archives. So far, in addition to the public diplomacy materials, another topic of releases from the library has been the urgent issue of UFOs. According to figures the Archives has released, even after the disclosures of recent days, there should still be about 35 sets of requested documents awaiting clearance by Mr. Clinton's representative. [*** See UPDATE below] None of those are believed to be primarily about Mrs. Clinton, though she could be mentioned in the files. The first set of files on Mrs. Clinton that is expected to be made public in response to public requests is a set of her schedules as First Lady. Those records are expected to be available in January. UPDATE: A spokesman for the Clintons, Jay Carson, said Monday that there are only three document requests covering about 4,000 pages currently pending review by Mr. Clinton's representative on records issues, Bruce Lindsey. Mr. Carson added that Mr. Lindsey has cleared "more than 22,000 pages of the reported 26,000 pages in front of him." Last month, Archives officials said there were about 57 requests pending review by presidential representatives, though the number is difficult to track in real time and a court filing suggests the actual number pending may have been somewhat lower. That process involves Mr. Lindsey first reviewing for Mr. Clinton and then the White House counsel's office reviewing for President Bush. White House spokesmen said early last month there were no requests pending at the White House, leading to the conclusion that all the pending requests were before Mr. Lindsey. At the time, Archives officials refused to detail how many requests were pending before each of the presidential representatives. As of Monday at noon ET, a total of 23 requests are listed as processed and released on the Clinton Library Web site, up from four a week ago.Related Topics: Dem Primary |
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